Kodi's page

It seems the spell designer didn't intend for Stone Shield to be used after the caster learns whether the attack would hit. The intent is contained in the following sentence:

If the opponent's attack misses you by 4 or less, the attack strikes the shield instead.

But if the caster knew in advance whether the attack would hit, the attack would always miss by 4 or less because otherwise the caster would never have erected the shield in the first place. So it seems the designer intended the shield to be erected before the caster knows whether the attack would hit.

Presenting Sohatobe, a young wyvern cleric of Apsu.

APPEARANCE: Sohatobe's menacing draconic visage is softened by a decorative suit of plate barding. Around his scaly neck, a golden brooch in the shape of a dragon's foot fastens a fine charcoal cloak about his shoulders. This young drake, measuring about nine feet from snout to tail-tip, typically prowls along on all fours, using his wing-arms as his front legs. Although this gait is a bit ungainly to behold, it comes quite naturally to him.

COMPANIONS: The two sisters Chrissy and Blue might know Sohatobe by virtue of the fact that Chrissy is open minded, perhaps seeing past the Soha's monstrous exterior into the bright, budding soul that flourishes within. Thus they may have struck up a friendship a few years back when the group formed and began undertaking missions together.

Sohatobe might know Templeton via the twin sisters, or perhaps they met at an earlier time. Although Soha shares little in common with Templeton's academic side, he can definitely sympathize with the challenge of keeping the beast within one's soul under control. Indeed, Sohatobe is no stranger to base impulses and savage temptations. Fortunately, a shining spirit also burns in the young drake's heart; and its radiance usually suffices to keep the dark talons of his ancestry at bay.

ROLES: As a cleric of Apsu, Sohatobe is a strong healer and an alert sentry (having the Guard role). He's a serviceable melee combatant with a respectable defense, as well as a set of jaws that are as impressive as they are scary. He's also an effective protector, shielding his nearby allies with a barrier against dragon's breath, fireballs and other energy attacks.

This young wyvern has also dabbled in the roguish arts. Thus if Soha is your enemy and you let him come up behind you, you might yourself short a kidney or heart as you become an unwitting participant in his organ donor program. He might also make snack of you afterward.

Outside of combat, Sohatobe is a gregarious creature. He speaks from the heart, having been a victim himself and thus knowing well the yearning for justice, compassion, and redemption. Thus he can serve as strong diplomat or negotiator. But since he speaks only Draconic and Common, this could be merely his part-time role. In cases where he can't communicate, perhaps the team's best linguist could step forward to either be the diplomat or to translate. Soha can also prepare the Share Languages spell if he knows in advance that the day is likely to involve contact with strangers.

HISTORY: Abducted as an egg from his ancestral aerie, Sohatobe was raised in captivity for thirty miserable years by a fiendish necromancer named Balkon. Balkon schemed to harvest the young wyvern, when it got old enough, for a rare antivenin. Never knowing the freedom of flight nor given a proper fledging by his real parents, Sohatobe was denied the proud heritage and savage culture of his wild brethren. Fortunately, with the help of a cunning ranger named Krios, the day came when he was liberated from his death sentence. Free at last!

After getting over his bewilderment at the wonders of the outside world, Sohatobe at first thirsted for vengeance against his former captor. But one night, he was struck by an intense dream wherein he was shown the outcome of his hatred. Looking down upon wave-thrashed rocks, he saw his own shattered carcass -- forlorn and stripped of every useful organ and elixir. His life would be forgotten and meaningless! So soul-stirring was the sight that even while still dreaming, he felt his hunger for Balkon's blood recede like the ocean's tide. He would not die like that! He would not give Balkon the satisfaction! Nor would Balkon ever get the antivenin he coveted!

Within the dream, Sohatobe wrested his spiteful gaze from Balkon's tower. He felt the hatred bleed out of his soul, much as the lifeblood had poured out of the smashed corpse on the rocks below. He lifted his head yearningly to the sky and the horizon. He would leave the land of his captivity behind. He would lose himself in the farthest reaches of the realm!

Awakening from his epiphany, Sohatobe discovered with a gasp that his scaly hide and wings, formerly shadowed in the hues of midnight, were streaked with swaths of lustrous brass. His scales gleamed in the radiance of a cresting sun. And like a chrysalis, his body was metamorphosizing -- fueled by the ancient fire of dragons. In his blood awakened the fierce vigor and dormant splendor of his distant ancestors.

And something else stirred in his soul: the bringer of his dream. The Maker of All. The Exiled Wyrm. Apsu the Waybringer! Having been bereft of meaning and companionship for so long, Sohatobe embraced this compassionate spirit. And over the coming months, he began to manifest divine power in the form of succoring vitality.

===

For your amusement, here is his character sheet. Feedback and corrections are welcome.

If you're bored or if you like this character, there's also a self-indulgent story about his potential future, decades from now: Alden's Inspiration.

It is ok if more than 1 person chooses the same Role, but we need at least one player with Craft (Cartography) in the party."

Just noticed the above in the post a the very top. That's a relief.

Insightful comments. And great job on the artwork for Blue! Bravo!

Sage seems like the strongest role mechanically because it gives three skill ranks per level, the most flexibility in how to spend them, and the most class skills. I suspect this is intentional because Reckless' style leans toward using knowledge checks as simply a means to funnel information into the party as a whole, not so much as an RP opportunity for the person making the checks.

I've seen other GMing styles where knowledge checks are used as RP opportunities, usually by whispering the check result to the player making it. Then it becomes up to that player how and when to present the information to the rest of the group. The downside of this is that it can eat up a lot of session time, often spent in silence or OOC chatter, while the GM composes a whisper to that player. Then the player spends time digesting the info and figuring out how to RP it back into the group.

Thus the whisper method is especially suited to text-only groups because the other players can go right on typing and RPing, having less concern of derailing the subject at hand.

For my own style, I usually compromise by whispering any important or sensitive knowledge check results directly to the players who achieve the DC. Where possible, I have the text ready in advance to paste in, which minimizes the disruption. But less important or interesting check results are just revealed publicly.

I seem to remember PhillyG was leaning toward a wizard. Not a problem to have two wizards, of course.

Also, since wizards aren't usually big on Charisma, perhaps Guide would be better than Diplomat. However, Gwen's hunter Chrissy wishes to be the Guide.

If you play something other than a wizard, Guard or Scout become stronger possibilities.

Concerning Scout, it seems a bit strange or awkward to have the group's scout not be the same person as its trap-finder. Dan's character Templeton, as currently conceived, is very good with defeating traps. So perhaps the scout role could be left vacant unless another person winds up being good at traps.

Overall, I don't think the intent of the Roles concept is to force players into roles they wouldn't enjoy or that don't fit their character concept. If that is true, some characters could have two roles (though still only one mechanically) and others could share a role, such as diplomat.

So let's say you're a level-1 cleric. Upon rising to level 2, you continue as a cleric but also add a gestalt level of ranger. For that level you'd gain the ranger's six skill ranks instead of the cleric's two. You'd also gain all of the class features of a level-2 cleric and a level-1 ranger.

But your BAB wouldn't be helped because both cleric and ranger advance by one that level? So your BAB would still be only 1?

Your saves at level 2, now having two levels of cleric and one level of ranger, might be the below:

Fort 4 = 2(cleric one) + 0(cleric two) + 2(ranger one)
Reflex 2 = 0(cleric one) + 0(cleric two) + 2(ranger one)
Will 3 = 2(cleric one) + 1(cleric two) + 0(ranger one)

Or maybe Fort and Reflex should be worse than shown above if you're gaining a level-two ranger's save-progression instead of a level-one ranger's.

And this raises a question from before: If we use gestalt, would all of a character's gestalt levels have to be taken in the same class?

Wow, great ratfolk pictures!

Hit Points are die-2 after level one (d6=4, d8=6, d10=8, d12=10)

That method disproportionately favors d10 and d12 classes and penalizes d6 classes. It seems more equitable to use the PFS method of half+1 (d6=4, d8=5, d10=6, d12=7).

Victory Points look interesting. I'm probably still neutral about them because giving players more options for their turns makes it even harder to decide what to do. However, the story and flavor benefits could make up for that.

Young Wyvern is a homebrew race with the specifications below:

Nice character concepts and stories from Jen and Gwen. Thanks for sharing them.

Great post, Stratton. Given those clarifications and additional details, I'm more comfortable with the setup now.

I'm now neutral about gestalt. If it winds up being used, it may need some clarification such as how BAB and saves are calculated, and whether characters are limited to a single class for all of their gestalt levels.

Given the choice between the specified ability array and the 15-point buy, I'd prefer the array. For one thing, it's more potent. For another, I often lean toward MAD vs. SAD.

As for a character concept, I'm leaning toward a good-aligned, young wyvern cleric of Apsu. The race is obviously unusual; but I have an existing design for it that puts it mechanically on par with the core races. For example, his size would be only medium (due to being young) and he wouldn't be able to fly until level 20 (for a reason in his backstory). His two natural weapons would be bite and tail (no wing attacks or poison due to being young).

He'd have Selective Channeling and would also be a melee-oriented cleric (since being limited to casting and healing tends to get tedious for me).

Also, feral characters inspire me. So if a young wyvern is unsuitable for any reason, I could probably come up with an awakened leopard, wolf, or some other bestial race that is mechanically on par with the core races.

The most suitable roles for him would be diplomat, guard, or guide. (But I suppose drawing maps as a guide might be a challenge if one has only wing fingers or claws to do it with.)

Open question: How are hit points calculated after level 1? Would we be using hero points? (I'm neutral on the subject.)

Pathfinder isn't really balanced for gestalt (not that PF itself is balanced, but gestalt tends to add fuel to the fire). Gestalt may amplify balance issues because some gestalt combinations are vastly more potent than others. I know we have a group of good players here, none of whom would intentionally break the game. But it's human nature to be attracted to strong combinations, not realizing until perhaps too late just how impressive they really are -- when some other players start to feel like sidekicks or bystanders. Alternatively the GM may feel pressured to ramp up the challenges to suit the uber PC(s); and this kind of arms race can often leave the non-uber PCs feeling like cannon fodder.

Gestalt, mythic, 3pp classes, and other material of questionable balance can work well in some groups, especially when the GM is willing to step in before the campaign starts to boost any lackluster PCs to narrow their gap with the uber PCs. But understandably, few GMs have the time and interest to do that. Thus some players may wind up feeling like their characters have no strong role in the party, such as when some other PC does everything they can do, only better.

The idea of "roles" is interesting, and clearly required in some fashion due to the nature of the story. But I wonder if having the roles give mechanical advantages adds more balance issues. For example, the sage role coupled with a high-Int character would probably make such a character the best at every knowledge skill, on top of all the other things they're good at. This carves out a large portion of the game's challenges for that person, which discourages other PCs from taking knowledge ranks and may make them feel less useful in the group overall.

In short, by adding more mechanical incentives and options to a system that's already very crunchy, players are often pulled away from bringing their character concept to life, instead seduced by synergy and mechanical advantage. The motivations behind this are fear and ambition: fear that they'll fall behind the others or become a bystander; and ambition to make the most effective character they can, with the strongest chance to survive.

Is this really what we want a tabletop RPG to be about?

For the new Reign of Winter campaign: Tue would be hard for me. But Mon, Wed, or Fri would work.

I can see the server name in the list, but I get a timeout error when trying to connect.

Thanks for posting that.

I mentioned giants instead of goblins because the Player's Guide says, "Giant Hunters: Rumors of giants mobilizing in the wilds of Varisia are spreading, and the people of this frontier land need saviors."

Also, the Giant Slayer trait says, "Since hearing of giants mobilizing throughout the countryside, you ventured to Sandpoint to help the town prepare for a possible incursion."

But clearly, goblins were one of the first threats the group had to deal with. And that was probably fortunate given what giants would likely do to a group of greenhorns! :)

Maybe come into OpenRPG and make a room to talk about it. Syngin, Flamster, and I are there.

I forgot to mention that only the DM (or the person hosting the MapTool server) needs to have the Pathfinder framework. The players don't need it.

Also, the framework is completely optional. MapTool can be used to play Pathfinder without it. It's just that the dice rolling, hit point tracking, and other things would be done more manually, like in OpenRPG.

Finally, I should mention that I personally don't have my heart set on using MapTool. Although it's my favorite virtual tabletop, I'd be content to play on OpenRPG or something like Roll20.net. I mention this in case MapTool turns out to be too much of a hassle for everyone to get running.

Here's a topic that explains how to ensure MapTool will run smoothly for you:

http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21856

In short, Java 6 is needed to run the current stable (well-tested) version of MapTool. But most computers have only Java 7 nowadays. Fortunately, Java 6 and 7 and co-exist without any trouble. The link above explains how to set it up.

They're working on a new MapTool that will support Java 7, but it's uncertain when it will become stable and well-tested. Furthermore, the Pathfinder framework for MapTool is a separate set of software, and it will likely have to be revised when the new version of MapTool comes out. It could be weeks or months before everything is well-tested and stable.

The Pathfinder framework for the stable version of MapTool (b87) can be found here:
http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=23609

I've never played a paladin before. I'd like to try that. My character would be more of the humble, optimistic sort rather than the stereotypical self-righteous kind. He's only 16 years old. Beyond his martial role, I think he'd enjoy being a diplomat and negotiator. Here's a sheet for the concept I have in mind: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=558357

Eventually it might be better to use Skype instead of this forum to send text messages to the group. This forum doesn't seem to support e-mail notification when a topic receives a new reply. I see that there is a feed, but that's not as convenient for me (I'm not sure how others feel).

I posted earlier in this topic. I wouldn't mind playing a cleric. I'll send in a sheet soon.

I would also like to play Bi Monthly :P

By this I assume you mean bi-weekly, as in every other Wednesday?

Although I prefer campaigns that play every week (or even more often) -- so that players don't forget so much about the story and their characters between sessions -- I might still be interested in applying.

The time would be from about 6 PM to 9 PM GMT?